


building spaceships at night

by irishmizzy



Category: Jonas Brothers
Genre: Gen, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-24
Updated: 2010-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-10 19:04:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irishmizzy/pseuds/irishmizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Party for Kevin? Must be at IHOP.</p>
            </blockquote>





	building spaceships at night

**Author's Note:**

> As they say on ONTD, pics or it didn't happen. (This didn't happen.)

He and Nick start planning all the way back before Kevin even proposes as, like, a sign of brotherly support and congratulations and all those things you do when something awesome happens to someone you love. But then there's the tour and they're perpetually exhausted and it feels like this time around there's even _less_ free time, which Joe didn't even think was possible, but oh hey, turns out it totally is, and taking Kev out to dinner to celebrate is easier said than done. A lot easier said than done. The three of them keep getting pulled apart, side trips and weather delays and the whole world conspiring against them, until it becomes this now-or-never deal. Which is exactly how they end up at an IHOP at midnight instead of at a nice restaurant at a normal hour. Because otherwise Kevin's gonna have grandkids by the time they catch their breath.

"Aw, guys, you shouldn't have," Kevin says when they walk in. "I mean really -- my birthday's not for another few months." God, he is never going to let them live that down. Nick rolls his eyes, because they already told Kev where they were going and why -- Kevin sure asks a lot of questions when you try to get him to go somewhere late at night and _It's a surprise, moron, jeez_ is not a sufficient answer, apparently -- but Joe takes the bait. As usual.

"It's not?" he says. "Then what the heck are we doing here?" He spins on his heel to walk out the door, but Nick catches him by the crook of his elbow. Joe lets Nick pull him along like that until he almost trips over his own feet and has to turn around and walk forwards again.

The hostess does a double take when she sees them and there's this sinking feeling in Joe's stomach, like maybe this wasn't the best idea after all. But then someone's rushing out from somewhere in the back and herding them to the quiet side of the restaurant, away from the other customers who, now that he thinks about it, are probably a bunch of girls eating post-concert waffles. Oh boy. Joe's just glad someone had the foresight to call ahead and warn the restaurant about their invasion; otherwise it could've been bad news. Big Rob doesn't exactly blend in with his surroundings.

"Only the best for you, Kev," he says as they're escorted to their table. He hooks his arm around Kevin's neck and pulls him close. He's still a little keyed up from the show, buzzing and giddy, and he tightens his arm around Kevin's neck so it's more of a headlock than a friendly thing, just because. Kev doesn't elbow him in the gut. Probably because he's engaged now, all grown-up and whatever.

When Kev got back from Jersey last week he looked like he'd flown to the freakin' moon, but other than being super-happy he didn't look any different. It was weird to Joe, and even now he keeps staring at him, looking for something that's changed, but Kevin doesn't look any older or more mature or anything. He's still the same Kevin who likes guitars and dumb shoes and has a tiny scar on his leg from where Joe stabbed him with the pencil that time. It's almost like nothing has changed at all. Joe's weirdly disappointed, even though he doesn't know what he was expecting.

They slide into the booth, Big Rob at a different table a few feet away so they can pretend they have some privacy, and unfold the giant menus. Joe wonders if they can ask the chef to write CONGRATS in whipped cream on top of whatever Kevin orders. Probably. But for some reason, Joe doesn't think it'd go over well. He'd wanted to pre-order a cake, or pancakes with candles at the very least, but Nick had given him that _don't be a dumbass_ look, so. Whipped cream spelling would probably go over just as well.

While they wait, Joe keeps elbowing Kevin because he can't sit still, not hard or anything, just tiny jabs at his ribs, trying to incite a reaction. Eventually he gets one, but it's not exciting, only Kevin sighing exasperatedly and saying, "Go sit with Nick."

"No," Joe and Nick both say at the same time. Joe glares at Nick and stops poking at Kevin. He folds his hands in his lap instead, ends up drumming idly on his knees. He feels antsy, that itchy-inside-your-skin feeling he gets after shows sometimes, when he's still got all this energy to burn and they're cooped up on the bus or a plane or somewhere else small and cramped. It's the worst. He wants to, like, get up and run laps around the restaurant until their food arrives or something. Maybe after they order. He drums faster, Wipeout mixed with Live to Party plus the middle part of Be Somebody, and it helps, a little.

Their waitress comes by not much later. She's older, her hair piled neatly on top of her head and held in place with two cans of hairspray. The kind of lady who you'd expect to be serving coffee and breakfast in the middle of the night. She smiles at them like she has no idea who they are, which is nice for a change. It's probably fake, but it's still nice.

"Hi, I'm Merle --"

"Hi, Merle," Joe says, grinning widely, but she gets this _look_ and oh no. She better not do something to his food. Her smile shifts to something that's less of a smile and more 'oh great, more hooligans.' She turns her attention to Nick.

"-- Can I get you boys something to drink?"

They order drinks and then Kevin says yeah, sure, they're ready to order their meals and Merle grows more and more annoyed when Joe can't decide. On the third round of eenie meenie miney mo Nick kicks him in the ankle, hard, and Joe just gets the chocolate chip pancakes. They'll be good. Can't go wrong there, right?

"I don't think she likes me," Joe says, once Merle's out of earshot.

"Really?"

"I can't imagine why not."

Joe moves to elbow Kevin again, but he blocks him and Joe ends up with a fist to the bicep that he's pretty sure is gonna bruise. Kevin laughs at the pained face Joe makes, and yeah, okay, maybe being engaged hasn't turned him into some pod-brother. Yet.

Nick rolls his eyes at them and starts to talk about the show earlier, a dropped chord and how tomorrow night they should make sure to focus more on -- something. Joe's not really listening, not when he's caught in death grip with Kevin, each of them trying to dole out Indian rug burns and duck bites. At least, that's what Joe's trying to do. Kevin might just be fending him off, because he's also responding to Nick, nodding and saying "uh-huh, totally, yeah, that'd be awesome," and smiling while slamming the knuckles of one hand into the muscle-iest part of Joe's thigh.

"Fuuuuck." Joe doubles over, clutching his leg. Mother_eff_.

Of course that's when Merle brings their food. Jeez, she was just here. What'd they do, irradiate the food instead of normally cooking it? Is he going to turn into Pancake Man if he eats this?

"Thanks," he says when Merle reaches over to set his plate down. She gives him the evil eye and Joe stops worrying about becoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Joe and starts thinking that Merle-germs might be more likely.

"She totally spit on these," Joe stage-whispers to Nick.

"Probably." Joe makes a face because, well, he was mostly joking, but now. He saw that waiter movie. He knows how these things work. People spit in food all the time! And, okay, maybe Merle isn't exactly Ryan Reynolds, but he wouldn't put it past her. She _really_ does not like him. Nick starts laughing at him. "Dude, jeez, she didn't spit in it."

"How do you know?" Joe hisses and Nick sighs, leans forward, and steals a forkful of whipped cream right off the top of Joe's short stack. "HEY."

"See? They're fine."

"Jerk." Joe snags a strip of bacon off his plate in retaliation. Kevin sighs kind of loudly, so Joe and Nick know it's directed at them, and that's when Joe yells, "WAIT." Kev freezes with his fork halfway to his mouth.

"I'm pretty sure she didn't spit on my food, Joe."

"No, no, just --" he motions for Kevin to put the fork down and then clears his throat. He shoots Nick a _ready?_ look and starts in on, "Happy engagement to youuuu."

"No," Kevin says, at the same time Nick shakes his head and says, "Not happening."

"But --"

"Yeah, no," Kevin says, laughing, and then Nick's talking about the Road Dogs and their strategy for tomorrow and a million other things. Kevin helps himself to some of Joe's pancakes and Joe eats more of Nick's bacon and then some of Kevin's, too. Joe starts to relax, feels the spazoid energy draining out of him like a robot losing power. Which is a weird thing to happen, because you'd think food would give you more energy, but now Joe's mostly sleepy. He stops wanting to poke at everything, everybody, and slumps into the squeaky vinyl of the booth. It's pretty comfortable. Though, he can say that about a lot of places; he isn't too picky. He could probably sleep in, like, that Gravitron thing they have at carnivals where it spins so fast you just stick to the wall. That would be pretty badass, actually. Like sleeping in outer space.

Kevin presses his knee against Joe's to stop it from bouncing. Joe didn't even realize he'd been doing it. Once he stops, Kevin moves his knee away. He doesn't stop relaying this joke Garbo told him the whole time. It's a dumb joke and Kev's totally butchering it, too, which. Danielle must really love him if she's willing to put up with this crappy storytelling for the rest of her life. Because so far, Joe's put up with it for all of his and he has to say, it's overrated. Nick's laughing pretty hard, though, so maybe Kevin's not ruining it. Kev's laughing a lot, too -- it's insane, how crazy happy he's been lately. Understandable, but man. He's always been so... even-keeled. Like, really good at keeping his emotions in check and everything. But these days it's like someone turned his dial all the way up to eleven or something. In a good way. 'Cause Joe's pretty sure that he'll go berserk when it's his turn -- it seems so freaking huge, like, it's a _big deal_, but here's Kevin, acting like it's nothing.

And maybe that's what's been weirding Joe out about the whole thing. Because it's not that he doesn't love Dani or anything bad like that, it's just... Kevin is so normal about the whole thing. Before he proposed he was a nervous wreck, but now he's like, completely calm. Excited, but not overwhelmed. Joe's going to be totally overwhelmed, he knows it. Hell, he's overwhelmed for Kevin, even though Kev's cool as a cucumber about it.

Mid-laugh, Kevin's jaw breaks off into a yawn and it turns contagious, setting them all off in a crazy yawning-round robin. Kevin manages to get "It's probably time to go," out through one of them and Joe looks at his watch and wow. Yeah. It definitely is.

Nick slides out of the booth to pay the bill, his wallet already in hand, and Joe says, "Oh hey, wait." He pats his pockets and Nick doesn't even blink at his _oh crap, I forgot my wallet_ face, which is fair, even though Joe meant to bring it, he really did -- he had it earlier, somewhere. Hm. "Ah ha! Here!" He holds his hand out to Nick, who rolls his eyes at the lint and the button that Joe thinks is the emergency button that came with these pants, probably, otherwise he's collecting buttons and he doesn't even know it, and takes the crumpled five dollar bill and heads to the register to pay.

"Would you stop staring at me," Kevin says, not long after Nick leaves.

"I'm not staring."

"You are too. You've been staring for, like, weeks. It's freaking me out."

"Shut up."

"It's not my fault you're, like, in love with me or something."

"Oh my God, did you really just say that? Really, Kevin? Really?" Kevin blushes and rolls his eyes a little, like he's only now realizing that spewing _Mean Girls_ quotes isn't the way to win this fight. Or any fight. "God, I can't believe you got Danielle to agree to marry you." Joe's totally kidding around when he says it, but Kevin gets this look and it's... It's a lot of things.

"I know," Kev says, awed and proud and fifty other simultaneous emotions, like maybe he's just good at not seeming overwhelmed, and Joe's throat closes up weirdly.

"It's crazy that you're all engaged now," Joe says, once he can swallow normally again. He waves his hands around when he says it. God, engaged. It's so... adult. And weird to say out loud. They've been saying it out loud for weeks, but it still feels weird. Like it's something that's bigger than them, completely, one hundred percent bigger, even though they're on a fucking world tour right now and the only person who doesn't know who they are is some old waitress in an IHOP in a flyover state.

"Oooh." Kevin chuckles and waves his hands around in the same pattern. "Are you always going to say it like that?"

"Probably." Kevin rolls his eyes and elbows Joe in the side. Not that hard, though. He's still got that look on his face, like he's caught in an avalanche of emotions, so Joe can't really help it when he throws his arms around him. "I'm happy for you," he says, super close to Kevin's face, his chin digging into Kev's shoulder. He tries to pull away, but that only makes Joe tighten his grip, like a Chinese fingertrap of hugs. "Don't fight it, Kev," he says, "Just let it happen. Just let it happen."

"I'm gone for two minutes," Nick says, standing next to Kevin. Joe reaches for him, trying to pull him in, too. Nick jumps back, skirting just out of reach, laughing as Joe nearly tips Kevin out of the booth trying to grab Nick.

They're still laughing when they leave the restaurant, the parking lot mostly deserted. Maybe this is how they should do it from now on, eating at bizarre times in the middle of nowhere. Hey, if it gets the cameras out of his face. He puts an arm around Nick's and Kevin's shoulders. After a few steps he bends his knees and lets himself hang there while they stagger a little under his sudden weight.

"Sooooo, Kev," he says, and Kevin turns his head slightly and raises one eyebrow. "Oh, right." Joe starts walking normally, says again, "Soooo, Kevin."

"Soooo, Joseph."

Joe stops walking and lets his arm slide off Kevin's back when he keeps moving. He keeps one arm tight around Nick, though, so he has to stop. Well, he doesn't _have to_, but he does, with a strangled noise.

"Who's going to be your best man?" Joe waggles his eyebrows and nods his head. He knows without turning that Nick's standing there coolly. Probably not even smiling. Which is going to totally ruin Kevin's wedding pictures, having Captain Frowns bringing everyone down. Joe starts to say that, because it's as good an argument as any, and Kev's looking back and forth like it's actually a tough decision, but then Kev smiles and says, "Frankie, duh," and then he ducks around Big Rob, using him as a human shield while Joe tries to tackle him and Nick yells helpful things like "Go left, Joe, no, left. LEFT. Are you retarded?" until he gets aggravated enough to help. Big Rob stands there, stoic, and doesn't say anything while they run circles around him. Kevin's face is a little red from laughing and running and Joe still kind of can't believe he's getting married -- _married_.

Kevin sees Joe watching him, and he must have a weird look on his face or something, because Kev slows down and smiles a little. Which is the only opening Nick needs to sprint forward and leap at Kevin, toppling them both to the ground.

"You planned that!" Kevin yells as he's falling, and no, Joe didn't, but whatever. It was awesome. He's totally taking credit. It's like the best man's job to be awesome at planning things, right?


End file.
